Lafayette Thomas | en

Lafayette Thomas (June 13, 1928, Shreveport, Louisiana – May 20, 1977, Brisbane, California) was an American blues singer, and guitarist.

He first heard blues guitar from his uncle Jesse Thomas in Shreveport, but Thomas did not play professionally until 1947, in San Francisco, California.

The bulk of his recordings were with Jimmy McCracklin's combo in the 1950s and 1960s. He solos with audacious brilliance on his own "Standing in the Back Door Crying", recorded at a 1954 McCracklin session with Modern Records.

In 1958 he moved to New York, working with Sam Price and playing on Bluesville album dates by Memphis Slim and Little Brother Montgomery, but soon went back west, though he let his music lapse.

Late in 1968, he cut his first sides for the World Pacific record label called Oakland Blues, a compilation album of artists from that notable blues city. He remained semi active in the early 1970s working with Sugar Pie Desanto.

Thomas died from a heart attack, at the age of 48. In his 1977 obituary Tom Mazzolini, producer of the San Francisco Blues Festival wrote: "Unquestionably the finest guitarist to emerge from the San Francisco-Oakland blues scene, there is hardly a guitarist around here today who doesn't owe a little something to Lafayette Thomas . . ." .